Tips and Techniques Thursday

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my continued discussion about powdered pigments, aka Pearl-Ex and Powdered Pigments, to name a few.  Last week I talked about binders and how to make the powdered pigments adhere to your surface.  Today, I'm going to give you a few techniques to try at home.  They are not new, but as always, they are oldies but goodies.  

A technique I like to use for applying mica powders is to stamp a fairly solid  image using VersaMark ink (or a clear embossing ink).  Then, I use a small paint brush to dust various colors of mica powders (powdered pigments) onto the image.  The powders will stick to the Versamark ink.  Brush off the excess powder and spray lightly with a spray fixative. Most of the colors work best on darker surfaces, like black, navy, or burgundy.

Another technique is to run a length of double-sided adhesive along the edge of your work, or wherever you want to use it, and dust the adhesive with mica powder (powdered pigments).  It will stick beautifully to the adhesive.  If it seems to be rubbing off, I use a light spray of fixative to keep it in place.  If you have a die cut machine, or even decorative craft punches, you can cut double sided adhesives through the machine or punch and use the shapes to adhere the powders to, also.  I recommend using the types of double-sided adhesives that say it is alright to use with punches and dies so as not to gum up your tools.

A pearlescent paint can be made by adding your powdered pigments to liquid adhesives, such as Sakura's Crystal Lacquer, or white glues like USArtQuest's Perfect Paper Adhesive (PPA).  There is no recipe.  I simply like to mix a very small amount of powder into a bit of glue, then I use a paint brush to paint (or color) my stamped images.  It helps if you use open designs and heat emboss the image with embossing powder and your heat gun.  The embossing creates a bit of a "well" or barrier to keep the liquid from running outside the lines.  

Well, that's it for this week.  Stay tuned for more about powdered pigments in the future.  Until next week, thanks for stopping by, and happy painting!

Barbara